1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to document printers and, more specifically, to systems and methods that receive a document containing multimedia or pointers to multimedia and act in accordance with the received document.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventional printers receive a representation of a document and then print the document in paper form. Generally, a conventional document will contain text and possibly some pictures or static graphics. For example, a printer may print a sales report or a snapshot of a web page. If the document is part of a larger multimedia presentation, however, conventional printers do not adequately represent the complete presentation. For example a sales report might be part of an animated computer slide show. As another example, a web page might incorporate an animated picture. As a third example, a pointer or local address might point to a digital recording of a television program. Conventional printers can only print a captured snapshot of such multimedia presentations.
Today, as more and more electrical databases and computer networks are interconnected, people often have multiple data systems and destinations in which to store information. For example, a person may receive an email containing information and/or a multimedia attachment that he wants to retain. The person may want to print some or all of the information. The person may further want to add the information to a database or to send the information to other people or destinations or to add the information to a web page. Currently, the person will need to execute several different software programs and will need to type multiple commands into the programs. He may also need to re-enter the information into one or more programs. This is not efficient and is prone to human error, since human beings occasionally forget to perform one of more of the tasks usually associated with a received document and are also prone to typographical errors.
What is needed is a printer and method that can capture and print more of the true flavor of a multimedia presentation or multimedia document.